Display tray with merchandise-mounted card packages

ABSTRACT

A package comprising a tray of thermoplastic material having a plurality of merchandise-mounted cards thereon. The tray has a bottom provided with longitudinal and transverse ribs to resist twisting of said tray, and side walls with vertical slotted ribs to hold the cards in an erect position while the extending external portion of said slotted ribs buttresses said side walls.

' .United States Patent I 91 3,856,137 Dec. 24, 1974 Brindley XMX RR 2 2 44 .2 5/ HBH4MM4 0 0 66 2 2300 2fi2 2wu .6. "0 n 2 m r 6 u U uka HaSSSdm n kkk 0 e .lfrr. mwmm PCBSSSMD 94467779 36666666 99999999 HHHHHHHH 1377224 00676703 5 957736 J 17002244 824600 2 p v p a r3 a y 23333333 W e m n D Y 0 Y W U R e m A N C m. D W 0 E m C H r. M U B b ,10 n Y. WM. CN Y% a wk M MN E A 0 6 P m m. S C e m IEA m S DMP I A flu 7 7 [rt 22 Filed:

Dec. 29, 1972 A L No; 319 531 Primary Examiner-Leonard Summer pp Attorney, Agent, or FirmCornelius F. O'Brien Related US. Application Data Continuation of Ser. No. 120,698, March 3, 1971, abandoned, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 765,852, Oct. 8, 1968, abandoned.

A package comprising a tray of thermoplastic material having a plurality of merchandise-mounted cards thereon. The tray has a bottom provided with longitudinal and transverse ribs to resist twisting of said tray, and side walls with vertical slotted ribs to hold the cards in an erect position while the extending external portion of said slotted ribs buttresses said side walls.

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[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures PAIENTED 0&241974 INVENTOR. ROBERT E. BRINDLEY A TTORNF DISPLAY TRAY WITH MERCHANDISE-MOUNTED CARD. PACKAGES This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 120,698, filed Mar. 3, 1971, now abandoned, which in turn is a continuation of applicationSer. No. 765,852, filed Oct. 8, 1968, now abandoned.

The present invention relates to a display tray and more particularly to a display tray for holding cards having merchandise mounted thereon.

Many small articles for sale to the consumer are conventionally mounted in transparent enclosures which are attached to cards. Rows of these cards are frequently disposed in display drawers or in display cartons provided with slots on their inner side walls for receiving the sides of the cards and holding them in an erect position. Sometimes the inner bottom wall of such drawers and cartons is also provided with transverse slots registering with the slots on the side walls, for additional support for the cards. While these display drawers and cartons provide satisfactory support for the merchandise, they present several disadvantages.

'The drawers, which are a fixture of the store where the merchandise is sold and are thus somewhat expensive, have specific dimensions and, therefore, can only be used for displaying cards of corresponding dimensions.

' The display cartons may be shipped flat in another carton containing the articles to be displayed and in this case are made to the dimensions of such articles, which is of advantage over the drawers. However, these cartons have to be assembled and erected at the point of use and then loaded with the cards. These operations are time consuming and, therefore, commercially undesirable. Moreover, while display cartons are cheaper than display drawers, their cost cannot be disre garded and must be added to the cost of the merchandise for sale. Another common way of displaying the cards is to hang them, through an apertureprovided for that purpose in their upper part, in a row on a peg board. While peg boards provide satisfactory display means, the cards have to be hung onto them one by one, another time consuming operation.

It is an object of the invention to provide a novel display tray so constructed as to be packaged in shipping cartons with the rows of' cards already disposed thereon.

It is another object of the invention to provide a novel display tray which can be packaged in shipping cartons in stacks of trays supporting rows of cards with merchandise mounted thereon and which can be easily removed from the shipping cartons ready to be placed, with the rows of cards, on counters, shelves and other supports in retail stores.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel display tray, very light, yet strong, and cheap, and which may be discarded after the merchandise displayed thereon has been sold.

The foregoing and additional objects will become more fully apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. I is athree-dimensional view ofa preferred embodiment of the display tray of the invention, showing in broken lines cards with articles mounted thereon, supported and displayed on said tray, and' 'FIG. 2 is a top view of the tray of FIG. 1 with the cards removed.

According to the invention, there is provided a display tray of thin, flexible thermoplastic material having a generally rectangular bottom with a pair of upstanding side walls and an upstanding end wall integral with the bottom. A plurality of longitudinal ribs formed in the bottom of the tray extends substantially the length thereof and preferably in close proximity to eachside wall. These ribs resist longitudinal bending of the tray. A plurality of slotted ribs is formed in each side wall, the ribs in one side wall being opposite and registering with the ribs in the other side wall. The slotted ribs are so shaped as to form buttresses for the side walls on their external surface. A plurality of ribs extends across the bottom of the tray, transverse to the longitudinal ribs and between the slotted ribs. The transverse ribs resist transverse bending of the tray. One extremity of the tray is preferably left open, to permit easy gripping and handling of the tray.

Cards with merchandise mounted thereon are inserted in the slotted ribs which hold the sides of said cards and maintain them in an erect position. A great advantage of the tray of the invention is that it is at the same time extremely light and strong and is capable of supporting a relatively very heavy load of merchandise, as will later be explained in detail.

The thin tray may be made of any synthetic organic thermoplastic resin material as long as said material is capable of providing a tray having the desired characteristics of strength and lightness. The resin material may contain any of the usual additives such as pigments and the like provided that such additives do not make the resin brittle. Resins such as a styrene polymer or a polycarbonate are preferred. A material particularly suitable for producing a very thin and yet strong tray according to the invention is an extrusion grade high impact polystyrene material, such as described in The Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, Kirk-Othmer, Volume 13, page 159, for example, and having the following property range:

Rockwell Hardness The thin tray may be injection molded, but is preferably thermoformed and more preferably vacuum formed.

Referring now to the drawing, there is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 a preferred embodiment of a display tray according to the invention, generally designated as 10. The tray '10 has a thin, rectangular bottom 12, a pair of thin upstanding side walls 14 and 16, and a thin upstanding end wall 18. The front of the tray is preferably left open to facilitate gripping of said tray. The side walls and the end wall are integral with the bottom. A

other and preferably from one side wall to the other.

The ribs 24 are disposed in spaced, parallel relationship with respect to each other. The longitudinal ribs 20 and 22 are preferably concave, whereas the transverse ribs 24 are convex, but this concave-convex order may be reversed. Also, the ribs 24 may be disposed in alternate concave-convex arrangement. Each side wall 14, 16 is provided with a plurality of slotted ribs 26, the ribs 26 in the side wall 14 being opposite, and registering with, the ribs 26 in the opposite side wall 16. The slotted ribs 26 project o'utsidethe side walls 14 and 16 and form buttresses for these thin side walls. The slotted ribs 26 are disposed between the transverse ribs 24 which extend intermediate said slotted ribs. The side walls 14 and 16 are preferably formed generally perpendicular V to the bottom 12, with the top part of said side walls bent outwardly over the projecting portion of the slotted ribs 26, to facilitate the die trim operation, when the edges of the tray are cut after forming.

For the purpose of illustration, FIG. 1 shows in broken lines two cards 28 inserted into opposite slotted ribs 26 in the side walls 14 and 16 and held in an erect position by the slotted ribs 26. The cards 28 each have four cylindrical batteries 30 mounted thereon in a transparent enclosure, in conventional manner. If'desired, the cards 28 may be provided with an aperture 32 in the upper part thereof. As shown, the tray of FIG. 1 with two sets of 12 slotted ribs 26, may hold 12 cards, and thus must be strong enough to carry the relatively heavy weight of the 48 batteriesmounted on the 12 cards.

When the tray is fully loaded with all the cards, the weight is distributed evenly over the tray. But when the tray is gripped at its extremity to be lifted, this even weight distribution is destroyed and substantial longitudinal bending moment is created. Additionally, unless the tray is gripped at the center ofthe extremity, a substantial transverse bending moment is created, and the resultant of these moments places substantial stress on the tray. The longitudinal ribs resist the longitudinal bending moment and the transverse ribs resist the transverse bending moment. The cooperative combination of longitudinal and transverse ribs resists the resultant from these moments which tends to cause twisting of the tray.

When the tray is gripped on the front part thereof, the greatest stress is on the side walls, and the slotted ribs 26, in addition to serving as supports for the cards, have a butt'ressing action on the walls 14 and 16 for they increase the area of said walls sufficiently to resist the forces applied onto said walls. Furthermore, the actual thickness of the bottom and side walls of the tray is the same before forming, but the concave-convex arrangement of the ribs 20, 22 and 24 in the bottom 12 greatly increases the effective thickness of the very thin, flexible bottom and the ribs 26 have the same effect on the side walls.

An embodiment of the display tray of the invention will now be more particularly described in the following Example:

EXAMPLE A tray as shown in FIG. 1 was made by vacuumforming an extruded sheet of high impact polystyrene having a thickness of 50 mils (0.05 in.). The polystyrene contained about 8 per cent by weight of butadiene. The polystyrene sheet contained blue pigments in an amount of 0.88 parts per 100 parts by volume of the resin. The extruded sheet had the following properties:

Property ASTM Test Units Value Izod Impact at 73 F. D 25656 ft. lb./in. 1.40

at 0F. notch 0.85 Vicat Softening Point D l 525-5 8T F. 207

Tensile Stress at yield D 638-61T lbs/inch 3500 at rupture lbs/inch 3000 Tensile Elongation at yield l. 15

at rupture 40 Tensile Modulus lbs./inch 300,000

Heat Deflection Tem rature at 2 psi Unannealed D 648-56 F. 185

Rockwell Hardness L scale D 785-62 75 The vacuum-formed tray had the following dimensions:

Length: 7% in. Width: 4% in. Height: 1 in. Thickness: 0.050 in. Weight: 0.9 oz.

The total weight of the 12 cards and 48 batteries (AA size) carried bythe tray was 2.85 lbs.

The unusual weight-carrying capacity of the tray of the invention is due to the ribs and to their particular disposition on the bottom and side walls of the tray as above explained. Aconventional tray would have to be rather thick and, therefore, relatively heavy to have the strength and rigidity necessary to carry such a load. Yet the tray of the invention is very light and so thin that millions of units may cheaply be produced by vacuumforming. The trays with rows of cards placed thereon by the battery manufacturer are thereafter easily stacked in shipping cartons. An advantage of stacking the trays with the rows of cards thereon is that the trays have a honeycombfeffect on the packed merchandise and provide an internal support for' the shipping cartons. The weight of the trays in the cartons is negligible.

The trays are easily removed from the shipping cartons and ready for display in the retail stores. If desired, when each of the cards is provided with an aperture in the upper part thereof, the apertures are automatically aligned when the cards are placed on the tray, and the whole row of cards may easily be transferred from the tray onto a peg board in a single, rapid operation.

While the tray of the invention has been described with batteries displayed thereon, it should be well understood that any kind of merchandise mounted on cards may be displayed on the tray and that the tray may be made to hold cards of any dimensions and shapes.

What is claimed is:

1. lncombination a plurality of cards having merchandise-mounted thereon, and a tray for supporting and displaying said cards in an erect position, said tray being fabricated from a thin, thermoplastic resin material and having a generally rectangular bottom, a pair of upstanding side walls, an open end and an upstanding end wall at the other end, said walls being integral with said bottom; a plurality of ribs formed in said side walls and extending externally thereof so as to buttress said side walls, said ribs providing slots in each side wall with. the slots in one side wall being opposite and registering with the slots in the other side wall so that the cards havingmerchandise mounted thereon are incan be displayed in said tray; a plurality of longitudinal ribs in the bottom of said tray close to each of said side walls to resist longitudinal bending of said tray; a plurality of transverse ribs in said bottom to resist transverse bending of said tray so that said transverse ribs and said longitudinal ribs cooperate to resist twisting of said tray; and wherein said longitudinal ribs and transverse ribs are disposed in a concave-convex arrangement wherein the ribs in one direction are concave and the ribs in the other direction are convex.

2. The combination of claim 1 wherein the longitudinal ribs are concave and spaced equidistantly from the longitudinal center line of the bottom, the transverse ribs are convex, the slots extend to the bottom of said tray and the upstanding side walls are generally perpendicular to the bottom with the top part of said side walls bent outwardly over the externally extending portion of the ribs in said side walls. 

1. In combination a plurality of cards having merchandisemounted thereon, and a tray for supporting and displaying said cards in an erect position, said tray being fabricated from a thin, thermoplastic resin material and having a generally rectangular bottom, a pair of upstanding side walls, an open end and an upstanding end wall at the other end, said walls being integral with said bottom; a plurality of ribs formed in said side walls and extending externally thereof so as to buttress said side walls, said ribs providing slots in each side wall with the slots in one side wall being opposite and registering with the slots in the other side wall so that the cards having merchandise mounted thereon are inserted into opposite slotted ribs and held therein in an erect position; the height of said side walls being less than the height of the inserted cards so that said cards can be displayed in said tray; a plurality of longitudinal ribs in the bottom of said tray close to each of said side walls to resist longitudinal bending of said tray; a plurality of transverse ribs in said bottom to resist transverse bending of said tray so that said transverse ribs and said longitudinal ribs cooperate to resist twisting of said tray; and wherein said longitudinal ribs and transverse ribs are disposed in a concave-convex arrangement wherein the ribs in one direction are concave and the ribs in the other direction are convex.
 2. The combination of claim 1 wherein the longitudinal ribs are concave and spaced equidistantly from the longitudinal center line of the bottom, the transverse ribs are convex, the slots extend to the bottom of said tray and the upstanding side walls are generally perpendicular to thE bottom with the top part of said side walls bent outwardly over the externally extending portion of the ribs in said side walls. 